Mr

[Cabrinha]

Hi all, just bought the air GT challenge for my childr for Christmas but obviously had to have a practice run with it!!  i Went into the car settings to find out how to reduce the power which I managed to do. 25 percent was perfect. the problem I had was I put a car on the inside lane slot and did the same reduction and it crawled along at a snails pace. 
can anyway one help before the big ho ho ho

ps great to get back into it after 40 years! 

 

[woodcote]

Hi Cabrinha - welcome to the forum!

 

The ARC Air system is great fun and a good choice. Being able to adjust power in the app using the Max Power feature is really handy. In my experience, the 25% Max Power is going to be really slow. I usually go for 75% with beginners, or use the 'Custom' setting to reduce to somewhere between 50 and 70% if there are really young children racing.

 

Having said that, the two cars in the GT Challenge set have different motors, so will handle the Max Power slightly differently. The Mercedes-AMG has a standard Scalextric 'short-can' motor and should work nicely on the 75% setting and will probably be way too slow at 25%. The Ford GTE has what is called a 'slim can' or 'FF' motor which is rather more punchy than the standard 'short-can'. I suspect it might get round okay at 25% and be more than a handful for a beginner driver at 75% or higher.

 

The Max Power setting in the ARC app is an ideal way of adjusting the power to suit each car individually.

 

I hope that helps and you have a lot of fun with the new set!

[gorp]

nice description of the ff

personally avoid them if possible because of other issues with the chassis required for it

[woodcote]

I find the FF 'slim can' motors fine. The characteristics of the motor are different to the more common Scalextric 'short can' but you get used to them. The FF motors have been standard in the Scalextric Formula One cars for many years - plus the absolutely fabulous Legends F1 cars from the 1960s and 70s - and they are all really good fun to drive. If they are too lively, the ARC app (with ARC Air and Pro powerbases) is perfect to adjust Max Power and the Throttle Curve features: https://slotracer.online/arc-pro-guide/controllers.html

 

The FF motors are also standard in the smaller 1960s and 70s saloons - Mini, Cortina, Escort, Beetle etc. They do need careful setting up if you remove the traction magnet. The FF turning up in the Ford GTE and the 1967 Ford MkIV was an unexpected decision, almost certainly driven by the low and sleek shapes needed for accurate scale models. As more of a racer, I would have preferred the standard short-can, but racers at our club have enjoyed running both cars on big digital tracks without magnets. I haven't seen any issues this side of the Atlantic with the fragile motor mounts in the GTE - I am sure this is something the Scalextric Team have looked at.

[gorp]

No comment woodcote about the ff chassis parts ?

Really surprised anyone races the legend f1s.

Quit buying modern day f1 toys too for same reason.

My opinion is last great scaly open wheel are the indy danarra.